Monday, 26 September 2011

PGCTHE taking off!

This is an important week: this is the week when the PGCTHE program starts at HCT in the UAE. (Oops, that's some collection of abbreviations! Should I add that the PGCTHE was developed at TAMK..? :) )

I'd like to wish you welcome, I'm really happy to have the chance to take this journey with you. Now that we're taking off and reaching the safe and smooth flight altitude, I'd like to take the opportunity to tell you a few words about our program.

I could say that this program is a result of a genuine passion for education combined with a great deal of hard work - but the passion has helped the work feel less hard. It started some five years ago when I and my colleague at TAMK, Marjatta Myllylä, wanted to take our teacher education program online and started to study it systematically while it was running. We realized that the world has changed in many ways and we felt that these changes made it a very different place for our teacher students. We wanted to find out what was it exactly that they needed to be successful in the new, 21st century world, and what we could do to help them get it.

The result is this program. It's designed in a way that allows you test and experiment on the new ideas and knowledge right away in your own work, and also share your experience with your colleagues so that you - and they - could learn even more. I really hope that you'll enjoy the ride! But beware - this is not a charter flight where the passengers can just passively sit back and hope for a smooth ride. No, here you are the pilot, and the facilitators and I will be co-pilots (and maybe the air traffic control at some points). Being the pilot is of course a bit more challenging, but it's also much more fun!

At the end of the program I'm sure you'll be not only confident flying the plane but even ready for some breathtaking aerobatics!